Optimism & other keys to good health....

Today's post: Tuesday, 4-21-2009

Prudent optimism, a strong sense of purpose, an outgoing and friendly nature including liking most people and wishing them well, and laughter all tend to create good health and resilience.

Their opposites tend to cause disease and early death too.

Perhaps even more important today with all the bad news lately is that this is true in both good times and bad times.

1. Martin Seligman, PhD in his book Learned Optimism shows that:

Optimists have faith that they can make good things happen and that many good things are permanent and always available. They can even do this beyond what looks like or really is the case.

Optimists tend to take action because they believe their efforts will work even if the odds say they won’t and when the initial tries don’t work. And even then, they tend to have faith they can find something that will work. They tend to believe that good things are permanent and to notice them when they show up. They try to make good things happen; they set goals because they expect to reach them; and they are very hard to defeat & tend to persist. In fact, initial failure often causes them to try to improve how they do things and to make a much stronger effort.

They tend to overestimate their chances of success beyond what the odds and other people’s experience show is likely. But this is less irrational than it looks because they take action to solve problems and often solve them when others cannot.

Prudent optimists do even better.

Optimists who are young and inexperienced or who forget to avoid avoidable risks get burned and can stop being optimistic or even get killed. Successful and prudent optimists tend to get extra training, skilled help, and avoid situations where failure is severely damaging or fatal.

They look for heads I win but tails I avoid losing situations. So if the downside is disastrous they look for a safer method or decline to take the risk. One such entrepreneur had a motto, “Where there is little to lose if you fail and a great deal to gain if you succeed, by all means try.” That sums it up very well.

Similarly they believe what they do is effective. But they focus more on achieving good results than taking credit for them. And when they succeed as members of a team, they always make sure to give their team members full credit first or only give their team members credit. They do give themselves credit internally; but publicly they give their team the credit. That makes them more effective because they then have more effective teams than people who don’t.

Despite the fact that they often see how others mess things up better than most people, they are more interested in making things better and taking responsibility to do so than in laying blame or punishing people for their mistakes. Their approach is let’s fix it now and set things up so it won’t happen next time.

And, for bad events, optimists instead of being irrationally confident and less seemingly realistic than most people, optimists are dramatically more sophisticated, analytical, scientific and accurate than most people. They are almost surgically realistic in fact.

They tend to see bad things as temporary and as limited in their scope. They realize that bad things have specific causes and if those causes are changed the bad effects will no longer occur.

If they fail at an attempt, they do NOT say that proves I can’t do this. They say that attempt failed, let’s find out why; and look for how the next attempt can be more successful.

So when dealing with bad events they are much saner and more realistic than most people.

And, this is particularly important when they deal with people. They tend to see people as grouchy or in a bad mood where non-optimists may see such people as mean people or having a sour disposition. The optimist knows that they may be sick or had someone else recently be mean to them or lack the training they need to deal well with the public. They know that the same people on another day or in different circumstances may actually be quite nice.

So, they tend to be hard to alienate and be able to deal with people better even when they are difficult. Since each and every part of such thinking is usually much more accurate and the good will and help of other people is so important, this means that optimists have more friends and fewer enemies. And they can meet people well and recover from it when things go badly with others. To put it mildly their accurate strategic thinking where people are concerned makes it very much more likely that they will have good social skills.

Research has found that such prudent optimists are more likely to eat right, exercise, and otherwise take action to keep their health. They succeed too. They have fewer diseases and live longer than other people.

They also tend to make more money and to recover better and faster if they lose money. They also are dramatically more resilient when things go wrong.

2. Having a strong sense of purpose has also been found to predict good health and longevity.

The simple way to think about this is that if you are doing something that is or will be very worthwhile and valuable to other people by your own best standards and values, you’ll think of yourself as worthwhile and your continued ability to make a contribution to achieving your purpose as important. So, you’ll tend to be prudent, to take care of your health, and you’ll be much harder to discourage than other people.

The Revered Robert Schuler even found a bible statement that applies to this that is extraordinarily comforting even if to people who have only a tiny belief in God. “God, who has begun a good work in you, will complete it.”

3. “An outgoing and friendly nature including liking most people and wishing them well” is a sign of optimism which we have already talked about.

But it also has an interesting track record that I read about earlier today. They studied people who lived to be 100 years old and looked for things that made them different. In both the men and women they studied, people who lived to be 100 tended to be more extraverted and friendly than those who did not.

Given that having a strong social network has also been found to help longevity, that makes sense.

4. Laughter helps. There is a quote from the bible that sums it up well.: “A merry heart doeth good like medicine.”

And the laughter itself is important because it dramatically releases stress and boosts feel good hormones. It even gives you some deep breathing and physical exercise.

A recent study found that people who found videos they found funny who then watched one of them for half an hour a day got better results on many of their heart risk indicators than they would have by taking the most effective drugs or supplements. If their blood pressure was too high, it went down. Their LDL cholesterol went down; and their HDL went up.

On this point, it seems the bible statement has turned out to be quite true.

Novel way to feel better...

Today's post: Friday, 12-5-2008

1. Most of us work at jobs where we know some of the people. Many of us keep in touch with family and friends. Many of us are married or are in some kind of stable, committed, relationship. Many of us shop or go to places to eat where we know the people or some of them because we see them often. Similarly, if you commute to work, you often get to know many of the people who commute when you do each day.

AND, each of those people is in similar social networks & knows or interacts with many people each week.

2. Suppose that someone in this network of people that YOU are in, unexpectedly gets a huge inheritance or wins a large LOTTO prize or gets a huge promotion they really wanted and know they can handle. Or they have been struggling to learn a new language and have been frustrated by it; but suddenly they begin thinking in it and speaking it easily.

Such people feel unusually good and act like it. They smile at people. They forgive people they otherwise wouldn’t. They say a friendly hello to people they often didn’t speak to before but saw often. They are kinder and more cheerful. They look happier than usual. They have a bit more energy than usual & clearly feel great.

3. Today on several different news services, a study was announced that found that these two things interact. If someone in a social network is in that good a mood, everyone in their extended social network begins to feel better and happier as the much more positive interactions that unusually happy person does makes each person they interact with feel better. And, so they feel better and tend to do the same thing to the other people in their lives. The research found that this effect travels two or three levels and lights up the whole social network of that person with good feelings, or happiness, in the words of the study.

4. The more effective authors & teachers of good people skills and success AND the better studies of these skills have found that acting like someone who is that happy tends to improve your communications and effectiveness. People tend to like people who do that and are glad to see them. They are more likely to cooperate with them or forgive them or give them the benefit of the doubt. And, over years and years these effects accumulate.

Famed self-help expert Dale Carnegie made it a point to teach people to smile when they see other people, to make sure to learn their names and remember them, and to take a legitimate interest in what they have to say. (There’s still a Dale Carnegie course; & his book, How to win Friends and Influence People, is still in print.)

The possibly even more insightful and strategic author, David Schwartz, who wrote the Magic of Thinking Big, taught to look for legitimate reasons to like people and treat them well and to make an effort to reach out to people.

He also taught to focus on reasons why you can do the things you want to do and to start by assuming there are solutions to problems and to begin looking for them. He also advised to look for legitimate reasons why things are going well or could go well. And he advised to always to pass these things in an enthusiastic way as good news.

Social scientists have found that in happier, more long lasting, marriages, each of the people in the couple knows and respects the real strengths the other has.

Social scientists who study sales have found that people who make encouraging and rewarding remarks are much more successful. And the reverse is also true, people who do the other work and learn to often make encouraging and rewarding remarks become successful.

Martin Seligman, PhD, who wrote Learned Optimism, found that people who are optimistic, tend to believe bad behavior in others is temporary and to notice consistent strengths in others.

They think someone who is acting badly is grouchy, or in a bad mood, or is having a bad day instead of thinking of them as an always hateful person, for example.

And, he found such optimistic people are better liked by new people they meet and have more and better friends than less optimistic people.

In fact, they tend to act like David Schwartz’s students. And, despite its dated setting and, in the original edition, extremely dated dollar amounts, his Magic of Thinking Big is a superb training manual for becoming an optimist with superb social skills. It’s even better at that than Martin Seligman’s book.

5. Here’s my idea and the “Novel way to feel better.”:

Use the tools in #4 above and begin treating the people in your social network as if you are a happy and optimistic person. Notice them, smile at them sometimes, treat them with kindness and respect. Encourage and support them. Look for legitimate reasons to cheer them on or compliment them and do it. Make a real special effort to do this well and every day. That alone will make you feel better when you do it.

But the really interesting thing this study reveals is because of this happiness transmission effect, if you do this well, there will also be an echo effect that will make YOU feel better, perhaps when you most need a lift yourself.

Optimism, happiness, & vitamin D protect your health....

Today's post: Tuesday, 7-1-2008

Suppose you eat right and get exercise every week.

And, you take many supplements to protect your health already.

Can you get healthier, and protect yourself from heart attack, stroke, & death in other proven & powerful ways?

Two very powerful ways were in the news I read today.

One came in my health email & the other was on Yahoo news.

1. Vitamin D turns out to be undersupplied to many people today who work inside all week & then watch TV inside during a lot of their weekends.

This means that most people no longer get enough sunshine produced vitamin D. So to have enough vitamin D in your body supplements are essential. And, in study after study, we are finding that people need more like 3,000 to 4,000 iu a day of vitamin D than the 400 once thought to be enough. (In the 1930’s when people walked more & spent a LOT more time outside it may have been. For most people today, that is no longer true.)

We’ve posted already on the value of taking at least 1,000 to 2,000 iu a day of vitamin D in its D3 form. It helps prevent depression & bad moods. And, it helps prevent all cancers. It also helps prevent osteoporosis as it helps the calcium you eat build your bones. There is even some evidence it prevents MS & other autoimmune diseases.

The email I got today reported a study that found that compared to people who didn’t get enough vitamin D, people who did were less much likely to die each year than the people who did not – of ALL causes. And, this was even true in people with existing heart disease. Wow.

Vitamin D3 in 1,000 iu capsules is very inexpensive. They run something like $6 including tax for 100 capsules.

So, in addition to any multivitamin you take, it might really pay you to add 1,000 or 2,000 iu of vitamin D each day.

2. And, it turns out optimism & doing the things that maximize your happiness produce positive effects on your health that may be even more powerful in protecting your health than taking vitamin D.

Here’s my excerpt of the article I found today on Yahoo in its news headline display.:

“The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them
By Robin Lloyd, Special to LiveScience posted: 27 February 2006”

(& Found on Yahoo News page on Tues, 7-1-2008)

“The Keys to Happiness….”

“What works, and what doesn't

Happiness does not come via prescription drugs, although 10 percent of women 18 and older and 4 percent of men take antidepressants, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Anti-depressants benefit those with mental illness but are no happiness guarantee, researchers say.

Nor will money or prosperity buy happiness for many of us.

Money that lifts people out of poverty increases happiness,
but after that, the better paychecks stop paying off sense-of-well-being dividends, research shows.

One route to more happiness is called "flow," an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you're doing than from how you do it.

Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California at Riverside has discovered that the road toward a more satisfying and meaningful life involves a recipe repeated in schools, churches and synagogues. Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life's small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.

The happiest people have strong friendships, says Ed Diener, a psychologist University of Illinois. Interestingly his research finds that most people are slightly to moderately happy, not unhappy.

"There are selfish reasons to behave in altruistic ways," says Gregg Easterbrook, author of "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse" (Random House, 2004).

"Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes," according to Easterbrook. "If it makes world a better place at same time, this is a real bonus."

Diener has collected specific details on this. People who positively evaluate their well-being on average have stronger immune systems, are better citizens at work, earn more income, have better marriages, are more sociable, and cope better with difficulties.”

X* X* X* X* X* X*

(I added the bolding to the points in this article that struck me as significant. They were NOT in the original.)

University of Pennsylvania’s Martin Seligman studied what aspects of optimistic thinking produced these effects. He found two very different factors.

a) He found that people who think bad things are temporary, specific in their bad effects, & have specific causes – and often can be changed, were more optimistic.

Since these things are often true, in this aspect optimistic people tended to be much MORE realistic than the pessimistic people who tended to think that bad things are permanent, incomprehensible, & likely ruin everything.

This factor makes them dramatically more able to withstand bad events & to recover from them.

In their relationships with other people, this aspect of optimism is incredibly powerful & effective.

This makes optimistic people more likely to believe people who are acting badly are in a bad mood or having problems temporarily instead of believing such people are bad & will always act badly. This makes optimistic people more forgiving & understanding & easy to live with. It’s why their marriages & friendships last and tend to go at least moderately well.

b) He also found that optimistic people tended to think good things are permanent & that the actions they take are likely to make things better & be effective than people who are pessimistic.

(I think it likely that the reason that regularly remembering things you are grateful for & doing small acts of kindness make people happier and less depressed is that they strengthen the belief of the person doing them that good things are permanently in their lives & that they are effective in doing things successfully.)

The bad news is optimists often believed in their own effectiveness more than the facts indicated & were sometimes less accurate & realistic about their chances of success than the pessimists.

The good news is that if they were also prudent about how they took risky actions, they would take actions to make things better & continue to do the things that worked & continue to try new things when their attempts did not work.

They visualized a successful outcome & took action.

By contrast, the pessimists would tend to fail to act or would give up easily if their first attempts failed.

Bottom line, the pessimists were perceptually more accurate. But the optimists were dramatically more effective in almost every area of their lives.

For this reason, optimists are much more likely to exercise, stop smoking or never start, believe that eating right will protect their health & do it, and to take supplements.

They also tend to have more social support and make more money from both of these factors.

It’s hardly any wonder that they have better health than the pessimists.